D-Sonic vs Wyred vs ....


About to pull the plug on new amps to replace my Parasound HCA-1500's

Anyone have any opinion on how these companies compare & for that matter anything else you would suggest? I have about $3K to play with for a pair of mono amps or a stereo amp. They will power old Infinity Kappa 8.1's which are presently bi-amped with a pair of the parasound HCA-1500's.

This is what I am considering

Wyred for sound SX-1000 pair at $2,400 for the pair and
Wyred for sound ST-1000 at $2,000
Wyred for sound ST-1000 mk II - not sure price, I see its new

D-sonic has their m3-1500 at $2,800 a pair and has 1500w at 8ohm

Any
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Guido, you are right about using the phone, at least as far as D-Sonic goes. When I was still researching replacements for my blown atma-spheres in the class D world, he always answered the phone himself and seems pretty cocky about his products. I think his relationship with Revel provides him with very broad range of speaker quality samples to use in his designs, but I think he doesn't know himself just how good his little amps can sound in a full-blown music-centered STEREO system set up with full attention to cables, platforms, footers and the rest of the tweaks commonplace among audiophiles.

His entry into 2-channel audio follows almost a cult following in the world of HT system owners who were dreaming about high-powered but clean-sounding amps to power ever more sophisticated speakers. His early ice amps were good enough to gain him a reputation within that community as evidenced by the 40+ pages of debate on his "official" page on AVSforum,com, starting in 2007, and only occasional references here at audiogon and the other sundry audio blogs. That balance changed with the publication in 6moons of Glen Wagenknecht's glowing review of his monster 1500w(8ohm) amp's ability to deliver the sonic goods in his very serious 2-channel system. Further evidence to support my claim that Mr. Deacon doesn't really get what a good thing he has wrought can be seen early in the review when he is interviewed by the author. Mr. Deacon came off as a bit miffed that his chosen powercords could be bettered by the reviewer, possibly leading to a better review, Mr. Deacon is adamant that these are not throwaways and believes that the purchaser will not require an upgrade. To quote, "these are high-quality hospital grade product sourced from Interpower and not inexpensive." Fortunately, the reviewer persevered and set them up as an audiophile would, otherwise, the review he wrote may not have been sufficient to bait the hook I bit when I ordered my M2-600 pair shortly thereafter.

One bit of personal learning experience I had with these amps was to discover just how good they can be made to sound when given care in placement and cabling. Despite weighing only about 10 lbs, they truly came to life for me when experimenting with crude isolation platforms thrown together using small oak shelves and leftover footers and cork/rubber blocks. This discovery spurred a project where I ended up putting similar 3-level platforms under every single component and power supply. These amps made it obvious that platforms and footers, used properly, result in superior sound to the listener.

My advice to the original poster is to go ahead and call r. deacon; he will probably answer the phone right away, but don't be too surprised if he doesn't talk the usual audiophile talk. His products walk the audiophile walk.

Better buy the amps now then while they are still relative unknowns and before the maker himself even realizes the full potential and raises the prices accordingly. :-)

On a serious note, even older Icepower modules deliver topnotch results when implemented well. Rowland and Bel Canto have demonstrated that to-date. Wyred also though perhaps to a lesser degree.

Consider also that Class D technology has not peaked or plateaued yet in terms of its potential. The precision and accuracy of the technology continues to increase. Abletec and or Pascal might be two the the better recent examples that have not gained large home audio market penetration yet. But the trend will continue and the results possible at any particular price point should only continue to improve, so like with computers, the longer one waits before making the investment, possibly the better, but there are very viable and top notch performers on teh current grand scale of things readily available now if desired. Plus Class D amp technology still has the most untapped potential of any amp technology out there at present IMHO.
Thank you McBuddah, very useful observations!

I thought it a good idea to link here to the 6moon review of the D-Sonic M2-1500M:

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/dsonic/1.html amp

Unless I am missing something the article does not mention whether the amp uses a Pascal module or an Abletech.

Best, G.
D-Sonic appears to have a new M3 series of amplifiers, as most devices are now called M3-xxxx. There is no description of the differences from the previous series, nor there is mention of what power conversion modules they utilize -- Pascal, Abletech, or otherwise. See:

http://www.d-sonic.net/products/mono/

G.
D-Sonic is a very secretive/murky product. Not much you can bank on other than price. Maybe that's enough?

I wonder how much sound difference/variability from unit to unit, series to series. No way to know really. That's a negative unfortunately.

Six Moon reviews are fun and interesting sometimes, but one review on such a big unknown as d-sonic can carry only so much water.

I suppose the strategy is "try it, you'll like it", which is fine.

Question for D-Sonic owners: once you buy, will D-Sonic answer tech questions about what you bought?